WASHINGTON — Most analysts predicted GOP Sen. Marco Rubio would not have much trouble marshaling resources and support in his re-election bid. And they were right.

Rubio, who is trying to rebuff a primary challenge from Manatee County businessman Carlos Beruff and win election to a second term this fall, scored endorsements this week from an important cadre of key conservative players: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Tea Party Patriots and the National Rifle Association.

"Marco Rubio is a strong advocate for the rights of law-abiding gun owners and sportsmen," NRA Executive Director Chris Cox said. "He has fought to preserve our Second Amendment freedoms and hunting heritage, and stood strong against President Obama, Hillary Clinton and former New York City billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg's extreme gun-control agenda."

"It's hardly surprising that the NRA would back Marco Rubio, who, after claiming the shooting in Orlando changed his mind on public service, voted against commonsense gun safety measures backed by more than eight in 10 Floridians" Tant said in a statement. "The NRA knows Rubio can be counted on to look out for the gun lobby no matter what his constituents think. Unfortunately for Rubio, the people of Florida have had enough with the NRA's insistence that nothing can be done to prevent gun violence."

On Friday, Rubio had more good news: His campaign raised $2.1 million between June 22 — when he announced he would reverse course and run for re-election — and June 30, the end of the latest campaign finance reporting period. That's a large amount to raise in less than 1½ weeks.

Polls already show Rubio well ahead of Beruff among GOP voters for the Aug. 30 primary nomination.

Beruff, a real estate developer who has hinted he might spend up to $20 million in the race, has criticized Rubio for breaking his pledge to not run for re-election, for being a "no-show" in Congress when he was on the campaign trail, and for not willing to promise he would serve a full six-year term if elected to a second term.

Rubio to skip convention

During the presidential campaign, Marco Rubio called Donald Trump "a con man" who couldn't be trusted. Then after Trump became the presumptive GOP nominee, the Florida senator said he planned to support him and would even be willing to speak at the convention on his behalf.

Now Rubio is saying he won't even go to Cleveland to participate in Trump's official nomination.

"Florida has always been a competitive state, and it will be this fall," Rubio campaign spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas said this week. "Marco had planned to go to the convention before he decided to seek re-election. Since Marco got into the race late, he will be in Florida campaigning and meeting with voters instead of going to Ohio."

Rubio has been doing a zigzag on Trump not unlike many other prominent Republicans who say they want to back the brash billionaire but are put off by some of his statements and positions.

Rubio has been unequivocal that given a choice between presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Trump in November, he would pick the Republican.

Prospects for Zika deal look bleak

Congress has one more week to reach a deal to fund the fight against Zika before they leave for a seven-week recess.

It may already be too late.

Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate keep pointing fingers, predictably blaming each other for failing to pass a spending bill that would provide millions for vaccine research, insect control and testing kits to combat a disease that's mainly spread by mosquitoes and can cause severe birth defects or paralysis.

"Funding our nation's Zika response is something that simply cannot wait any longer and it cannot be used as a vehicle to advance partisan, ideological positions," Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., wrote in a letter Thursday to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Nelson was referring to a $1.1 billion Zika bill with a number of provisions unpalatable to Democrats, including $750 million in budget cuts to other health care programs. He wants McConnell to take up a clean version of the funding bill.

"It's disgraceful that Zika funds have been stonewalled again by dysfunctional Washington politics," countered GOP Rep. Vern Buchanan, who represents Sarasota. "The Senate Democrats have yet another opportunity to show they are serious about getting much-needed resources to our communities before more Americans are infected."

Florida is ground zero in the effort to combat Zika. Since July 1 the state Department of Health has reported 27 cases of the disease. The state already has more than 260 reported cases.

To date, all the cases in the mainland United States involve someone who has been infected elsewhere but was diagnosed after they arrived in the continental U.S.

Health officials say it's probable that there's already a case of local transmission along the Gulf Coast that just hasn't been discovered. In addition, they say that even if lawmakers were able to agree to a Zika compromise by next week, it's probably too late to do much for this mosquito season given the arrival of summer.

On Friday a Utah woman became the first person on the U.S. mainland to die after becoming infected with the Zika virus, the Salt Lake County Health Department announced.

Lawmakers want better-performing workers

Two Florida GOP lawmakers want to make it tougher for federal workers to misbehave.

So the Space Coast Republican this week successfully inserted an amendment to a spending bill that would bar federal workers from using private, unsecure email servers to conduct official government business.

"This would ensure that the time and taxpayer money invested in the security of sensitive information will not be undermined by carelessness or misunderstandings," Posey said on the floor before it passed by voice vote. "By passing this amendment, we will significantly improve the security of our government IT."

The measure came a day after FBI Director James Comey announced his recommendation that neither Clinton nor her aides be prosecuted criminally even though they were "extremely careless" in their handling of classified information. Attorney General Loretta Lynch formally closed the inquiry Wednesday.

Republican Jeff Miller, who represents the western Panhandle, introduced a bill this week that would strengthen whistleblower protections "and help fix the Department of Veterans Affairs' biggest problem — its pervasive lack of accountability for misbehaving employees."

Miller is the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs and has been a leading congressional critic of the VA's treatment of veterans.

His bill would shorten the time disciplined rank-and-file employees can appeal their punishment from more than a year on average to no more than 77 days; remove certain protections for VA senior executives appealing their discipline, and authorize the VA secretary to recoup bonuses and relocation expenses from misbehaving employees, among other provisions.

"The biggest obstacle standing in the way of VA reform is the department's pervasive lack of accountability among employees at all levels," Miller said. "Until this problem is fixed once and for all, long-term efforts to reform VA are doomed to fail."